A network security audit system may employ different types of network data gathering tools to gather information about the network. For example, one type of scanner may be capable of operating system fingerprinting, port mapping, and/or vulnerability assessment, while another scanner may be configured with other capabilities. Other types of information sources such as, for example, cameras, human input, and the like, may also be used to add to the information provided by the scanners.
A drawback to utilizing different types of network data gathering tools in a network security audit system is that each tool generally requires a different interface format. The input and output configurations may therefore differ from tool to tool. Designing a separate interface for each particular type of tool used for a network audit is inefficient and laborious. Such an approach also generally limits the network audit system in expanding its current set of tools. Accordingly, there exists a need for a system and method that uniformly interfaces with the different types of network data gathering tools without having to cater the interface to the particular type of tool that is being used.